As the Monaco track dried up, Sainz decided to stay out on wets until the track was ready for slicks, a strategy which gave him a great chance to grab a maiden win.
But a slow out-lap meant Sainz was overcut by Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who emerged out of the pits two second ahead of the Ferrari driver when the Mexican pitted one lap later to move from intermediates to slicks.
Immediately after the race, Sainz said it was lapped traffic on his out-lap that had cost him a chance to win. When asked on Sunday night to explain his anger, Sainz questioned why Williams driver Latifi decided to stay ahead of Sainz when the Spaniard came out of the pits, rather than slotting in behind the Ferrari.
"Well, you can understand the frustration and the feeling that I went through there, because I knew my race was all about that out lap," Sainz said. "As soon as I exited the pits, I was wheel spinning, obviously on the wet patch. And [Latifi] just managed to sneak in ahead of me.
"Knowing that I was the leader of the race at that time, he could have perfectly just stayed behind me instead of overtaking me, while I have to stay to the right of the yellow line like some others struggled to.
"So yes, he overtook me basically going up, because I had to stay right on the wet patch of the yellow line."
Sainz said Latifi only heeded the blue flags in the tunnel, which meant Sainz lost his advantage of getting one extra lap on slicks compared to Perez.
"I had to follow him through Turn 3, Turn 4, Turn 5, Turn 6, Turn 7 and Turn 8 and at the exit of Turn 8 he got out of the way in the tunnel," Sainz explained. "But at that time, I had already lost the warm-up of the tyre and the time to make a difference on the slick.
"I believe this slick at that point was already as quick as the inter and for sure not slower than the inter.
"And just because of being stuck behind this slowest car on the grid at that time, it cost me them the opportunity to stay ahead of Checo after the pitstop.
"So you can imagine my frustration, you can imagine my shouting on the radio to get him out of the way but for some reason it took longer than it should."
